Lose vs. Loose

How to Lose something Loose?

Have you found yourself being laughed upon by many people just because of a simple misuse of words? It is embarrassing isn’t it? Well if you don’t want such scenario to happen again, you better be more confident about the words which you are about to utter. If you think that you are not so good in terms of word usage or maybe words are just so playful to you, try your hardest in studying grammar, vocabulary and speech. Always remember that there is nothing that hard work and study will not supply. There are words which sound the same when you hear them but certainly are having meanings which are totally different from each other. The words loose and lose are only some of those words having seemingly similar pronunciations but relay meanings which are very far from the other. Let us try to study these words to know about their differences.

The word loose could either be an adjective or a verb pertaining to something which is “not tight” or to anything “having no constraints”. It is usually used to describe the way our clothes fit to us, the tightness of a knot or tie, or even the placement of the hinge of our doors. For example: “The dress that the model wore was so loose that it almost made her naked as it falls slowly to the ground”. In this example, the narrator uses the word as an adjective expressing his description about the dress the model wore.

On the other hand, the word lose is commonly used as a verb expressing actions of “having something misplaced”, “being not able to succeed”, or simply “the act of not winning”. Examples of its usage are as follows: “I lose the proposed designs for the summer collection of Salvatorre Feragamo; if I lose the project, I may not be able to have the honor granted to me; and the Miami Heats lose the game to the Dallas Mavericks”.

Though the words loose and lose are sometimes used incorrectly because of the similarities of their pronunciations, they actually differ in so many ways. You actually pronounce loose using the “S” sound while you pronounce lose with the “Z” sound. Their meanings are not even related to each other. Even in the grammatical use in the sentence both also differ as loose is used as an adjective while lose is a verb, sometimes loose can be used as a verb though. If you don’t want to be a victim of these two words – which I was once – better know more about them. Remember, words will give you so much acknowledgements when you know how to use them but if you don’t, prepare yourself for embarrassment.

In brief:

Loose is an adjective pertaining to something not tight or having no constraints.

Lose is a verb expressing actions of misplacing something or simply the act of not winning.

Loose is pronounced using the “S” sound while lose is pronounced using the “Z” sound.